


Our Demons

by QueenSinnamon



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship/Love, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 23:44:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9264350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenSinnamon/pseuds/QueenSinnamon
Summary: Percy and Annabeth hadn't quite escaped Tartarus.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't wholly pleasant, so please take care.

Ever since they got back from Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth have never been the same.  
  
Percy jumped at any and every sudden movement. One time, he nearly punched the living daylights out of Jason when he didn't notice the son of Zeus approach to call him for dinner. Jason had reacted to defend himself and sparks literally flew, shutting the power of the Argo II down for a second. Good thing Leo had considered an outage while he was building the ship and installed a back up generator. Frank had volunteered to call Percy since the incident. "No way he won't notice my bulk," Frank said, but they all knew it was more because he was less of a threat than Jason unless in battle.  
  
Leo thought it was funny and kept shooting his hand across the table or tossing random bits of tools from his magic tool bag. Jason told him to stop--which he laughed off-- and Frank had elbowed him a few times to no avail. Leo kept on teasing Percy until he nearly cut his hand off. It was only thanks to Jason and Frank's reflexes, deflecting Percy's blade and shoving Leo out of the way--with pleasure from Frank--that he kept his hand and wrist intact. Percy apologized and Leo said that it was okay, but he had kept still during meal times since, and any time he was around the son of the Sea God.  
  
Annabeth tended to hover around Percy, so Piper and Hazel thought it would be a good idea to take her out on a girls' day. They had decided to go to a book café but Annabeth had been hesitant to join them. With a little nudge and a bit of charmspeak, they finally convinced her to go, assuring her that Frank and Jason, and Leo (from a healthy distance), would be there to help if Percy got in any trouble. Still, Annabeth was fidgety even before they left the Argo II, reminding her boyfriend several times to call her via Iris message if anything happened before flat out telling him to not leave the ship unless it was an emergency.

On the way to the city, she kept looking back and finding excuses to return to the ship--"Oh wait, I left something", "No, I can't leave without taking my thing along". She actually managed to slip back once and Piper had to charmspeak her into relaxing. Hazel nearly wanted to curl up on the curb and sleep.  
  
At the café, as they all sat and sipped on their frappes, Annabeth kept turning a golden drachma in her fingers and looking at the door every time the bell rang to welcome a new customer, even as she stooped to read a book. It had bothered Hazel since she had seen Annabeth read books for hours on end and no amount of calling or nudging, even pestering from Percy, could make her so much as budge.

Finally, Annabeth stood up and excused herself to go to the toilet. When a few minutes had passed and Hazel, out of watching Annabeth, looked up as the bell rang and there was no one at the door, she knew the daughter of Athena had ran back to Percy. "So that's what she went back to fetch," Piper said with defeat. Annaneth had brought her invisibility hat along. Annabeth apologized when they got back on the ship but they had never had another girls-only time since without Percy there or anywhere nearby.  
  
It was worse at night, when they were all in their individual bedrooms. Coach Hedge insisted that the boys sleep away from the girls so their rooms were at the opposite sides of the ship.  
  
Frank's and Jason's were the closest to Percy's, since Leo slept in the engine room, and they sometimes woke in the middle of the night to the sound of banging and slashing.The last time, they actually heard Percy scream, "Get away from me! Don't touch her!" They found his room shredded to bits the next morning. They would have thought a monster had slipped in if Percy weren't sitting in the corner, bleary-eyed and staring into space with his sword in hand, his knuckles white from clutching it so tightly. His lips were moving, whispering, but they heard nothing, and they were afraid he would slash them to ribbons if they came closer.  

Of course, Leo had installed magic for room service to fix it but Percy had insisted to sleep way below deck, in the stables. He'd carried only the mattress and a pillow. After all, no one could hear him there and, if he destroys anything, no one would go, "Damn it, Percy! I needed those fences for a thing!"  
  
Meanwhile, in the girls' wing, Piper sometimes heard crying from the end of the hall. Hazel thought maybe it was the wind, but Piper knew Leo enough to know that the Argo II was flawless. Leo joked that maybe the ship was haunted, and they had dismissed it for some time, until one night, Piper swallowed her fear--"I'm not afraid of ghosts, no, totally not. It's not like I'm scared of a white lady crying for her baby or anything, or a headless horseman," she told herself, but she woke Hazel anyway. "To send the ghosts on their way to the Underworld".

Hazel protested that that was her brother's specialty, Nico's, but he was nowhere to be found. They weren't even sure where he slept in the ship, and he rarely turned up for meals. Nevertheless, they followed the sobs. They almost thought that it was from the vacant room at the end of the hall but, when they opened it---well, when Hazel opened it, Piper hiding behind her-- there was nothing in it. The sound was a little stronger though, and more recognizable now.

It was Annabeth. Her room was right next door. They knocked but there was no answer, only sobs, so they let themselves in. The lights were off, and they could only make out Annabeth's blond hair. "Who's there? Percy? Is..is that you?" Annabeth whispered between hiccups. She was on the bed. "I can't see you. Please...please, don't leave me." They all ended up sleeping in the vacant room, where the enchantment provided a cot big enough for the three of them.  
  
For some time, there was peace and their nights were undisturbed, until there was a long, bloodcurdling scream that rang through the entire ship. They all woke with a start, and footsteps ran up and down the halls, Percy yelling, "Annabeth! Where are you?! Answer me!"

Jason and Frank ran out of their rooms and found Percy in the halls, searching every room, calling for Annabeth. They tried to stop him and calm him down but he only bowled through them as he ran to the girls' wing. Coach Hedge had popped out of his room, swinging his baseball bat, yelling "Who died?!" which probably didn't help and instead only made Percy go berserk as he followed Annabeth's persistent screams. There was a bang, yelps, and the scream stopped.  
  
Jason, Frank, and Coach Hedge ran to the girls' wing, followed by Leo, who had turned the ship to autopilot. They found Percy and Annabeth in the vacant room, on the floor and locked in an embrace that no one dared to coax them out of, not even Piper who was shaking with Hazel in one corner of the room. The door had been obliterated. "I'm here, I'm sorry, don't cry, I'm here," Percy whispered like a mantra as Annabeth sobbed into his shoulder.  
  
"It's Tartarus," Nico said as he appeared out of shadow, making everyone jump. Leo almost blasted him with a fireball. "They haven't completely left yet." He tried to explain the things he, himself, saw and went through there. Hazel held his hand as he spoke, and didn't let go despite how tightly he was squeezing her hand. Nico looked calm, but Hazel knew he felt anything but. "They're in shock, even I don't know how long they'll be like this."  
  
They all turned to Coach Hedge for help. Percy was dangerous to everyone on board, especially to himself, and taking his sword away would be useless. It would just return to his pocket. Hazel and Piper were becoming fatigued from sleepless nights accompanying Annabeth. They had to do something.  
  
The coach was quiet for a long time with a sour look on his face before he told them all to go back to their rooms or he would "smack y'all with my bat, see if I don't!"  
  
And they did, except for Hazel and Nico who decided--Hazel did, Nico relented--to share a room that night. Frank wanted to join them, but Coach Hedge said that only siblings were allowed to do that.  
  
They spent the rest of the night in their rooms, worried about Percy and Annabeth, until the quiet lulled them to sleep. When they woke the next morning, Percy and Annabeth were no longer in the vacant room, or in Percy's, or in Annabeth's. Coach Hedge had gone missing too.  
  
They all searched through the entire ship, growing panicky with every minute that passed and they haven't found them yet. What if Percy had gone on a rampage again and actually swung his sword at the coach? Did he run away with Annabeth?  
  
Then the intercom chime came on, softer than it usually was, and Leo's voice whispered, as softly as could be through the ship-wide speakers, "Guys, I found them."  
  
They all ran to meet Leo below deck and, as soon as he saw them come close, he signaled for them to be quiet. He was standing at the threshold of the stables, staring at something. They followed his line of sight, and they heard the coach's snores before they saw him lying in a hammock over a stable, hugging his baseballbat like a teddy bear. Under him, in a cot of hay and sheets were Percy and Annabeth, the weariness gone from their faces as they slept in each other's arms, under the watch of their satyr chaperone like newborn baby goats.  
  
When the coach woke a little later, Leo chided him about breaking his own rules that boys and girls couldn't sleep together. He thought the coach would go berserk and threaten him to smack him with the bat, initiating a game of tag-and-whack, but instead the coach only sighed, looking older than he already did. "Valdez, you have your own demons, and people try to sympathize, but do you really think they understand?" he said with a sigh.  
  
Leo grew quiet. Everyone did. As quiet as Percy and Annabeth's demons as they slept in each other's arms.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a long time ago, thus the large difference from my writing style now, but I think it's fine as it is, and is still relevant, to the fandom and the general idea. My thoughts _at the time_ :
> 
> See, I was remembering what happened to Annabeth and Percy in House of Hades, and sure, they've been through a lot, killed a lot of monsters, but it was completely okay. Monsters don't really die when they are killed (people do tho ♪＼(*＾▽＾*)／) and they were evil anyway, so it never really bothered their conscience, but in Tartarus, they felt the monsters', and even some people's, pain and hatred toward them, and for the first time, they felt absolutely helpless.
> 
> I love Percy and Annabeth to bits, and I hate it when my favorite characters are in pain, but if they didn't have PTSD after literally going through hell and back, I'm a hippocampus.
> 
> -
> 
> Thank you for reading! ♥  
> If you enjoyed, liked, or loved this fic, please let me know by leaving a comment, kudos, or a little gift to me through [here](http://PayPal.Me/ChaJungPiggybank).
> 
> It's not a requirement at all, it's all completely up you. I would just be very very grateful for whatever feedback you would give me.  
> Have a nice day! ♥


End file.
